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Astronauts Update Science Software and Hardware Keeping Up Ongoing Space Research
June 5, 2025
The Expedition 73 crew serviced a variety of science software and hardware on Thursday keeping up its advanced space research experiments and technology demonstrations.
Eye checks, Earth observations, and life support maintenance rounded out International Space Station’s schedule.
The orbital outpost is filled with numerous science components enabling a wide range of investigations into space phenomena that is unable to be replicated in Earth’s gravity environment.
The facilities range from entire laboratory modules, refrigerator-sized research racks that can support multiple experiments, to computers that control the devices, monitor the experiments, and record the research data.
Scientists use the results to promote innovative health solutions for both astronauts and Earthlings and benefit public and private industries in space and on Earth.
NASA Flight Engineers Jonny Kim and Anne McClain took turns today working on computer gear ensuring microgravity research continues to provide pristine, quality results.
Kim worked in the Columbus laboratory module and swapped out a processor cartridge inside the Spaceborne Computer-2. The commercial-off-the-shelf computer is demonstrating the ability to speed up research insights on orbit without reliance on Earthbound assets.
McClain updated the firmware inside the Blood Analyzer, a handheld biomedical device located in the Destiny laboratory module that quickly tests a blood sample for numerous constituents aboard the orbital outpost.
Station Commander Takuya Onishi of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) removed the AstroPi camera from a window on the Unity module then connected and powered it up inside Columbus.
There are two AstroPi computers aboard the orbiting lab designed by the European Space Agency to support scientific and engineering skills among students.
Onishi also downloaded data measuring the station’s atmosphere for the Aerosol Monitors technology demonstration to protect astronaut health.
NASA Flight Engineer Nichole Ayers once again processed deep-sea bacteria samples to test imaging operations inside a 3D research microscope, also known as the Extant Life Volumetric Imaging System, or ELVIS.
The specialized 3D imaging device, located in the Kibo laboratory module, could be used to monitor water quality, detect potentially infectious organisms, and study liquid mixtures and microorganisms in space and on Earth.
Before all the science hardware work began on Thursday, Onishi, McClain, and Ayers took part in vision checks reading characters off a standard eye chart.
At the end of their crew shift, the three astronauts joined Kim and called down to Earth for a ground conference with their mission’s flight director.
First time cosmonaut Kirill Peskov from Roscosmos wrapped an Earth photography session and downloaded imagery of landmarks he captured across the globe.
Afterward, Peskov filled out a computer questionnaire to help researchers better understand how international crews and mission controllers from around the world communicate.
Flight Engineers Alexey Zubritskiy and Sergey Ryzhikov spent their day on maintenance tasks filling an oxygen generator tank and cleaning a heater fan inside the Progress 90 cargo craft
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/spacestation/2025/06/05/science-software-hardware/
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/ixpe/nasas-ixpe-obtains-first-x-ray-polarization-measurement-of-magnetar-outburst/
https://www.nasa.gov/mission/imaging-x-ray-polarimetry-explorer-ixpe/
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/adbffa
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/adbffb
NASA’s IXPE Obtains First X-ray Polarization Measurement of Magnetar Outburst
Jun 05, 2025
What happens when the universe’s most magnetic object shines with the power of 1,000 Suns in a matter of seconds?
Thanks to NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer), a mission in collaboration with ASI (Italian Space Agency), scientists are one step closer to understanding this extreme event.
Magnetars are a type of young neutron star — a stellar remnant formed when a massive star reaches the end of its life and collapses in on itself, leaving behind a dense core roughly the mass of the Sun, but squashed down to the size of a city.
Neutron stars display some of the most extreme physics in the observable universe and present unique opportunities to study conditions that would otherwise be impossible to replicate in a laboratory on Earth.
The magnetar 1E 1841-045, located in the remnants of a supernova (SNR Kes 73) nearly 28,000 light-years from Earth, was observed to be in a state of outburst by NASA’s Swift, Fermi, and NICER telescopes on August 21, 2024.
A few times a year, the IXPE team approves requests to interrupt the telescope’s scheduled observations to instead focus on unique and unexpected celestial events.
When magnetar 1E 1841-045 entered this brighter, active state, scientists decided to redirect IXPE to obtain the first-ever polarization measurements of a flaring magnetar.
Magnetars have magnetic fields several thousand times stronger than most neutron stars and host the strongest magnetic fields of any known object in the universe.
Disturbances to their extreme magnetic fields can cause a magnetar to release up to a thousand times more X-ray energy than it normally would for several weeks.
This enhanced state is called an outburst, but the mechanisms behind them are still not well understood.
Through IXPE’s X-ray polarization measurements, scientists may be able to get closer to uncovering the mysteries of these events.
Polarization carries information about the orientation and alignment of the emitted X-ray light waves; the higher the degree of polarization, the more the X-ray waves are traveling in sync, akin to a tightly choreographed dance performance.
Examining the polarization characteristics of magnetars reveals clues about the energetic processes producing the observed photons as well as the direction and geometry of the magnetar magnetic fields.
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The IXPE results, aided by observations from NASA’s NuSTAR and NICER telescopes, show that the X-ray emissions from 1E 1841-045 become more polarized at higher energy levels while still maintaining the same direction of propagation.
A significant contribution to this high polarization degree comes from the hard X-ray tail of 1E 1841-045, an energetic magnetospheric component dominating the highest photon energies observed by IXPE.
“Hard X-rays” refer to X-rays with shorter wavelengths and higher energies than “soft X-rays.” Although prevalent in magnetars, the mechanics driving the production of these high energy X-ray photons are still largely unknown.
Several theories have been proposed to explain this emission, but now the high polarization associated with these hard X-rays provide further clues into their origin.
The results are presented in two papers published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, one led by Rachael Stewart, a PhD student at George Washington University, and the other by Michela Rigoselli of the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics.
The papers represent the collective effort of large international teams across several countries.
“This unique observation will help advance the existing models aiming to explain magnetar hard X-ray emission by requiring them to account for this very high level of synchronization we see among these hard X-ray photons,” said Stewart.
“This really showcases the power of polarization measurements in constraining physics in the extreme environments of magnetars.”
Rigoselli, lead author of the companion paper, added, “It will be interesting to observe 1E 1841-045 once it has returned to its quiescent, baseline state to follow the evolution of its polarimetric properties.”
IXPE is a space observatory built to discover the secrets of some of the most extreme objects in the universe.
Launched in December 2021 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on a Falcon 9 rocket, the IXPE mission is part of NASA’s Small Explorer series.
IXPE, which continues to provide unprecedented data enabling groundbreaking discoveries about celestial objects across the universe, is a joint NASA and Italian Space Agency mission with partners and science collaborators in 12 countries.
IXPE is led by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. BAE Systems, headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, manages spacecraft operations together with the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder.
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NASA’s PACE Mission Reveals a Year of Terrestrial Data on Plant Health
Jun 05, 2025
A lot can change in a year for Earth’s forests and vegetation, as springtime and rainy seasons can bring new growth, while cooling temperatures and dry weather can bring a dieback of those green colors.
And now, a novel type of NASA visualization illustrates those changes in a full complement of colors as seen from space.
NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) satellite is designed to view Earth’s microscopic ocean plants in a new lens, but researchers have proved its hyperspectral use over land, as well.
Previous missions measured broad changes in chlorophyll, the pigment that gives plants their green color and also allows them to perform photosynthesis.
Now, for the first time, PACE measurements have allowed NASA scientists and visualizers to show a complete year of global vegetation data using three pigments: chlorophyll, anthocyanins, and carotenoids.
That multicolor imagery tells a clearer story about the health of land vegetation by detecting the smallest of variations in leaf colors.
“Earth is amazing. It’s humbling, being able to see life pulsing in colors across the whole globe,” said Morgaine McKibben, PACE applications lead at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
“It’s like the overview effect that astronauts describe when they look down at Earth, except we are looking through our technology and data.”
Anthocyanins are the red pigments in leaves, while carotenoids are the yellow pigments – both of which we see when autumn changes the colors of trees.
Plants use these pigments to protect themselves from fluctuations in the weather, adapting to the environment through chemical changes in their leaves.
For example, leaves can turn more yellow when they have too much sunlight but not enough of the other necessities, like water and nutrients.
If they didn’t adjust their color, it would damage the mechanisms they have to perform photosynthesis.
In the visualization, the data is highlighted in bright colors: magenta represents anthocyanins, green represents chlorophyll, and cyan represents carotenoids.
The brighter the colors are, the more leaves there are in that area. The movement of these colors across the land areas show the seasonal changes over time.
In areas like the evergreen forests of the Pacific Northwest, plants undergo less seasonal change. The data highlights this, showing comparatively steadier colors as the year progresses.
The combination of these three pigments helps scientists pinpoint even more information about plant health.
“Shifts in these pigments, as detected by PACE, give novel information that may better describe vegetation growth, or when vegetation changes from flourishing to stressed,” said McKibben.
“It’s just one of many ways the mission will drive increased understanding of our home planet and enable innovative, practical solutions that serve society.”
The Ocean Color Instrument on PACE collects hyperspectral data, which means it observes the planet in 100 different wavelengths of visible and near infrared light.
It is the only instrument – in space or elsewhere – that provides hyperspectral coverage around the globe every one to two days.
The PACE mission builds on the legacy of earlier missions, such as Landsat, which gathers higher resolution data but observes a fraction of those wavelengths.
In a paper recently published in Remote Sensing Letters, scientists introduced the mission’s first terrestrial data products.
“This PACE data provides a new view of Earth that will improve our understanding of ecosystem dynamics and function,” said Fred Huemmrich, research professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, member of the PACE science and applications team, and first author of the paper.
“With the PACE data, it’s like we’re looking at a whole new world of color. It allows us to describe pigment characteristics at the leaf level that we weren’t able to do before.”
As scientists continue to work with these new data, available on the PACE website, they’ll be able to incorporate it into future science applications, which may include forest monitoring or early detection of drought effects.
https://www.nasa.gov/earth/nasas-pace-mission-reveals-a-year-of-terrestrial-data-on-plant-health/
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2150704X.2025.2470905#d1e162
https://pace.oceansciences.org/access_pace_data.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKS3sHvkc4Y
NASA Astronaut Jeanette Epps Retires
Jun 05, 2025
NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps retired May 30, after nearly 16 years of service with the agency.
Epps most recently served as a mission specialist during NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 mission, spending 235 days in space, including 232 days aboard the International Space Station, working on hundreds of scientific experiments during Expedition 71/72.
“I have had the distinct pleasure of following Jeanette’s journey here at NASA from the very beginning,” said Steve Koerner, acting director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
“Jeanette’s tenacity and dedication to mission excellence is admirable. Her contributions to the advancement of human space exploration will continue to benefit humanity and inspire the next generation of explorers for several years to come.”
Epps was selected in 2009 as a member of NASA’s 20th astronaut class. In addition to her spaceflight, she served as a lead capsule communicator, or capcom, in NASA’s Mission Control Center and as a crew support astronaut for two space station expeditions.
“Ever since Jeanette joined the astronaut corps, she has met every challenge with resilience and determination,” said Joe Acaba, NASA’s chief astronaut. “We will miss her greatly, but I know she’s going to continue to do great things.”
Epps also participated in NEEMO (NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operation) off the coast of Florida, conducted geologic studies in Hawaii, and served as a representative to the Generic Joint Operations Panel, which addressed crew efficiency aboard the space station.
The Syracuse, New York, native holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from Le Moyne College in Syracuse. She also earned master’s and doctorate degrees in aerospace engineering from the University of Maryland in College Park.
During her graduate studies, she became a NASA Fellow, authoring several journal and conference articles about her research. Epps also received a provisional patent and a U.S. patent prior to her role at NASA.
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-astronaut-jeanette-epps-retires/
Hubble Captures Starry Spectacle
Jun 06, 2025
A galaxy ablaze with young stars is the subject of this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image. Named NGC 685, this galaxy is situated about 64 million light-years away in the constellation Eridanus (the River).
NGC 685 is a barred spiral because its feathery spiral arms sprout from the ends of a bar of stars at the galaxy’s center. The Milky Way is also a barred spiral, but our galaxy is a little less than twice the size of NGC 685.
Astronomers used Hubble to study NGC 685 for two observing programs, both focused on star formation. It’s no surprise that NGC 685 was part of these programs: numerous patches of young, blue stars highlight the galaxy’s spiral arms.
Also visible are pink gas clouds, called H II (pronounced ‘H-two’) regions, that glow for a short time when particularly hot and massive stars are born. An especially eye-catching H II region peeks out at the bottom edge of the image.
Despite the dozens of star-forming regions evident in this image, NGC 685 converts an amount of gas equivalent to less than half the mass of the Sun into stars each year.
The Hubble data collected for the two observing programs will allow astronomers to catalogue 50,000 H II regions and 100,000 star clusters in nearby galaxies.
By combining Hubble’s sensitive visible and ultraviolet observations with infrared data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope and radio data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, researchers can peer into the depths of dusty stellar nurseries and illuminate the stars forming there.
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/hubble-captures-starry-spectacle/
Trump-Musk split exposes how reliant NASA has become on SpaceX
June 6, 2025
Elon Musk's threat Thursday to decommission SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft would have left NASA reliant on Russian capsules to get its astronauts into space.
Why it matters: Musk's rift with President Trump exposes how reliant NASA has become on a single private sector partner to reach the International Space Station after ending the space shuttle program in 2011.
Musk eventually walked back the threat Thursday, but it demonstrates how critical SpaceX is to the American space program.
Catch up quick: The feud between the president and world's richest man exploded into public view Thursday after Musk criticized Trump's flagship spending bill.
Trump subsequently threatened to cut all of Musk's government contracts, and Musk retaliated by threatening to mothball SpaceX's Dragon.
It's an acrimonious ending to Musk's tenure in the White House.
State of play: The Dragon spacecraft can carry up to seven passengers into orbit, according to the SpaceX website.
"It is the only spacecraft currently flying that is capable of returning significant amounts of cargo to Earth, and is the first private spacecraft to take humans to the space station," the website said.
Between 2011 when the space shuttle program ended and 2020 when the Dragon entered service, American astronauts relied on other countries to reach space, particularly Russia.
The Dragon has completed 51 missions and 46 visits to the ISS, per SpaceX.
Russia's Soyuz capsules are the only other way for crews to reach the space station, per AP.
Each Soyuz launch carries two Russians and one NASA astronaut. Every SpaceX launch carries one Russian.
Flashback: NASA in 2014 awarded contracts to SpaceX and Boeing to transport crews to the ISS.
Boeing's Starliner, though, experienced significant setbacks and left astronauts stranded on its first crewed test flight.
Zoom out: While NASA relies on SpaceX for its astronauts, other companies including Northrop Grumman and the United Launch Alliance successfully transport cargo to the ISS and launch satellites.
https://www.axios.com/2025/06/06/musk-spacex-dragon-capsule-nasa-space-station-trump
Canada reaffirms international collaboration with the European Space Agency
Jun 06, 2025, 10:30 ET
Today, Sherry Romanado, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence, on behalf of the Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), joined CSA President Lisa Campbell and the Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA), Dr. Josef Aschbacher, at the John H. Chapman Space Centre (the CSA's headquarters in Longueuil).
The two heads of space agencies signed a joint statement reaffirming Canada and ESA's unique, proven and productive partnership.
This signature marks a key milestone in the mid-term review of the Canada–ESA Cooperation Agreement.
For nearly 50 years, the Canada–ESA Cooperation Agreement has advanced Canadian innovation and expertise on the world stage.
Canada's unique status as ESA's only non-European cooperating state gives Canadian companies privileged access to the European space market.
Every dollar awarded to Canadian companies through ESA contracts generates nearly three dollars in return, benefitting Canadian businesses and injecting value into the Canadian economy.
This collaboration helps Canada's space sector build long-term relationships with the European space community and contributes to strengthening innovation, competitiveness, and technological capabilities.
It has propelled numerous Canadian organizations to the forefront of their fields, positioning Canadian expertise at the heart of bold international space missions.
Dr. Aschbacher's visit to Canada was a unique and timely opportunity to underscore the deep ties between the space programs of Canada and Europe and to emphasize the shared commitment to fortifying their alliance in order to accelerate and grow their respective space sectors.
As Canada looks to strengthen its ties with like-minded countries, including those in Europe, this longstanding partnership provides an opportunity and a proven path for Canada to bolster diversification of the space sector for the benefit of Canadians.
Quotes
"Today's signature is about reaffirming Canada's long-standing commitment to its collaboration with ESA, which has consistently yielded proven results for our Canadian space sector.
As our focus is to unleash a new era of growth for our country, space represents the perfect domain to advance innovation and contributes to our goal of building a stronger Canada."
— The Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for the Canadian Space Agency
"With this signature and the creation of the ESA–CSA task force, we are finding even more common synergies between ESA's activities and Canada's own priorities and strengthening the long-standing relationship between Europe and Canada.
Canada's status as a non-European ESA cooperating state positions Canadian expertise – and industry – at the heart of bold international space missions.
In today's geopolitical and economic environment, strong and reliable partnerships are more important than ever. ESA is proud to partner with Canada, and I look forward to our continued successes together."
— Dr. Josef Aschbacher, Director General of the European Space Agency
Quick facts
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Funded by the CSA, the Canada–ESA program allows Canadian organizations access to contracts related to ESA programs.
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Between January 2018 and December 2024, this collaboration led to 233 ESA-funded contracts to 82 Canadian entities, valued at approximately CAN$192 million.
Behind these numbers is a growing network of Canadian talent and technology now woven into ESA's most advanced programs – from space robotics to next-generation communications.
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Canada and ESA have been collaborating in the space sector since the early 1970s. Formal cooperation began in 1979 with the signing of the first Cooperation Agreement.
The Agreement has been renewed five times since (1984, 1989, 2000, 2012 and 2019).
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Dr. Josef Aschbacher's official visit to Canada took place from June 4 to 6, 2025. It included engagements with senior government officials and industry leaders in Ottawa and Montreal.
https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/canada-reaffirms-international-collaboration-with-the-european-space-agency-865610150.html
https://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/news/articles/2025/2025-06-06-joint-statement-on-the-successful-completion-of-the-mid-term-review-of-the-canada%E2%80%93esa-cooperation-agreement.asp
https://www.business-standard.com/health/women-astronauts-menstruation-in-space-nasa-design-inclusion-125060600804_1.html
Menstruation in space: How women astronauts manage periods in orbit
Updated : Jun 06 2025 | 5:38 PM IST
In 1983, when Sally Ride was preparing to become the first American woman in space, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) engineers posed an odd question: Would 100 tampons be enough for her seven-day mission?
Her reply: “That would be more than sufficient.”
This awkward exchange has since become a symbol of how unprepared space programmes were for the reality of women’s health in orbit.
For decades, the male-dominated world of space exploration largely ignored the biological needs of half the population.
But now, with more women heading to the stars, the question of how astronauts manage their periods in space has gone from taboo to tech.
The early challenges of menstruation in space missions
For years, space travel was considered a male domain. When the first astronauts went to space in the 1960s, the systems and suits were built exclusively with them in mind. The mere idea of a woman menstruating in space wasn’t even on the checklist.
In 1963, Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space. While a milestone, there’s little public documentation on how—or if—her menstrual cycle was addressed.
In 1964, a paper published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology described women as “temperamental psychophysiologic humans” unsuited for piloting spacecraft.
The authors cited studies claiming menstruating women were more accident-prone and even suggested they might be responsible for unexplained air crashes.
Some scientists speculated that menstrual blood could flow backward in zero gravity—a myth later debunked by Nasa medical experts.
By the time Sally Ride made her historic flight in 1983, Nasa had to face reality: if women were going to space, they’d have periods there too.
Unfortunately, the male engineers’ understanding of menstruation was limited, to say the least. What happens to menstruation and periods in zero gravity?
When it comes to periods in space, one might imagine a ghastly nebula of levitating blood. Scientists had similar worries.
But gravity doesn’t control your period. It turns out that while spaceflight affects many bodily systems, the female menstrual cycle remains largely unchanged.
“It can happen normally in space, and if women choose to do that, they can,” says Dr Varsha Jain, gynaecologist and researcher at King’s College London.
Astronaut Rhea Seddon, in a 2010 interview, recalled that female astronauts urged Nasa to treat menstruation as a “non-problem until [it becomes] a problem.”
Since no one knew what to expect, they suggested just sending women up—and bringing them back if anything went wrong.
“I’m not sure who had the first period in space,” Seddon said, “but they came back and said, ‘Period in space, just like period on the ground. Don’t worry about it.’”
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The challenge isn’t the menstruation itself—it’s managing hygiene and waste in a cramped, pressurised cabin with limited water and privacy.
Some waste-disposal facilities on the International Space Station can now handle human blood, but they weren’t originally designed to do so.
Another challenge is calculating the added weight, storage, and waste management for items like tampons and sanitary products.
Why most astronauts suppress periods with hormonal birth control
Today, most female astronauts choose to suppress their periods entirely during missions. This is done safely through continuous hormonal birth control—either with pills or long-acting methods such as IUDs or injections.
Nasa medical teams now work with astronauts ahead of missions to determine the best approach based on individual needs. Some prefer to keep menstruating naturally, and that option is supported too.
Nasa physician and astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor has spoken openly about these choices. “It’s a choice,” she said. “Some women choose to menstruate, some don’t. Either way, we train for it.”
Still, long missions—such as a three-year journey to Mars—present new challenges. According to Dr Jain, astronauts on such missions would need about 1,100 pills, adding cost, packaging, weight and waste.
That makes long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs), such as implants or hormonal IUDs, a more convenient solution.
Inclusive space design: Meeting female astronaut health needs
Menstruation is just one part of the larger push to make space travel inclusive.
From designing space suits to fit more body types to conducting biomedical research on hormonal differences, space agencies are beginning to acknowledge the diversity of human needs.
More than 100 women have flown to space since Valentina Tereshkova, but the systems still lag behind.
Future missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond will require safe, comfortable and sustainable menstrual care in microgravity.
Nasa, the European Space Agency and private companies are now developing improved hygiene systems, reusable products and real-time body monitoring tools.
And it’s clear: the more women involved in designing space missions, the more thoughtfully inclusive those systems become.
Why menstruation in space is a symbol of design equity
Managing menstruation in space may seem minor compared to interstellar navigation or building Moon bases. But it highlights a larger truth: The systems we build reflect the people we expect to use them.
For too long, spaceflight ignored women’s biology. Today, mission checklists include tampons, hormonal therapy and custom-fit suits—paving the way for a future where anyone can go to space as their full, human self.
And no, Nasa no longer packs 100 tampons for a seven-day trip. We’ve come a long way—and still have a long way to go.
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Japanese space startup Ispace fails in second moon-landing mission
Jun 6, 2025
Japanese space startup Ispace’s lunar mission ended in failure on Friday after the team was unable to make contact with its lander, with a hard crash landing appearing likely.
The company had hoped it would become the first private company outside the United States to achieve a soft landing on the moon.
The lander, named Resilience, was meant to touch down early morning Japan time near the center of the Mare Frigoris (Sea of Cold) in the moon’s northern hemisphere, as part of Mission 2 under Ispace’s Hakuto-R program.
However, after the planned landing time of 4:17 a.m., the team was unable to make contact with Resilience.
At a news conference at 9 a.m., company founder and CEO Takeshi Hakamada said the team determined that it had to abandon the mission.
“We really wanted this mission to succeed but we were unable to pull off the landing,” he said.
“Along with the spirit of the name Resilience, we will analyze the issues that caused this and keep pressing forward for the future.”
Although it was confirmed that the lander was almost vertical, communication was subsequently lost, and no data indicating landing was received.
While the cause of the communication failure remains unclear, the company said that there was a delay in obtaining measurements from the laser range finder, which measures the distance to the lunar surface, and that the lander was not able to slow down sufficiently to the speed required for landing.
Given these circumstances, the company believes there is a high probability that the lander made a hard landing on the lunar surface.
This was Ispace’s second attempt at a lunar landing, following the failure of its Hakuto-R Mission 1 in April 2023.
That mission also ended in a failure after a software error caused the lander to miscalculate its altitude and fall from about 5 kilometers above the surface. H
owever, the company stressed that the issues this time are different.
The Resilience lander launched on Jan. 15 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, alongside Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander, which reached the lunar surface in March via a separate trajectory.
Ispace’s mission took a longer, lower-energy route, using gravitational forces to gradually enter lunar orbit rather than relying on high-powered heavy propulsion.
Resilience was part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, which aims to deliver scientific instruments and technology demonstrations to the lunar surface.
Its payload included a range of scientific and cultural items.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/06/06/japan/science-health/ispace-lunar-lander-failure/
https://www.space.com/astronomy/moon/private-japanese-spacecraft-resilience-ispace-moon-landing-attempt
https://spacenews.com/second-ispace-lunar-lander-presumed-lost/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T59x7LMuC4k
Fireball streaks through aurora-filled skies
June 5, 2025
Spectators were already out capturing the stunning aurora display when a blazing meteor sped past.
What is it?
At 5:57 a.m. local time skywatchers around Montréal, Canada and parts of the northeastern U.S. found themselves watching the brilliant streak of a bright meteor, also called a fireball, zoom across the sky.
The aurora borealis, or "the northern lights" happen when charged particles ejected from the sun interact with Earth's atmosphere.
These particles are shuttled to our planet's north and south poles by Earth's magnetic field.
There, the particles excite gas and molecules in Earth's atmosphere, creating various colors depending on which gas is in the atmosphere.
Where is it?
This photo was taken in Chelsea, a municipality of Quebec.
Why is it amazing?
Blue and purple auroras are rather rare, as the particles from the sun interact with Earth's atmosphere at an altitude of 60 miles or less.
These colors tend to be seen at the lower part of the display. The most common color for auroras is green, as the human eye is most sensitive to green in the visible color spectrum.
Adjacent to the aurora in the sky is a giant fireball, which, according to NOIRLab, has to have a streak brighter than how the planets appear in the sky (with an apparent magnitude of –4 or more luminous) to be seen by observers.
This photograph was one of 14 reported sightings according to the American Meteor Society on June 3, 2025.
https://www.space.com/astronomy/earth/fireball-streaks-through-aurora-filled-skies-space-photo-of-the-day-for-june-5-2025
https://fireball.amsmeteors.org/members/imo_view/event/2025/3001
https://www.space.com/astronomy/james-webb-space-telescope/james-webb-space-telescope-reveals-largest-ever-panorama-of-the-early-universe
https://cosmos2025.iap.fr/fitsmap.html
https://www.rit.edu/news/cosmos-web-opens-window-universe-scientists-and-citizens
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.03256
James Webb Space Telescope reveals largest-ever panorama of the early universe
June 5, 2025
Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have unveiled the largest map of the early universe to date, a sweeping cosmic panorama that offers seasoned scientists and curious stargazers alike a front-row seat to the ancient cosmos.
The images come from COSMOS-Web, the largest observing program the James Webb Space Telescope undertook in its first year. It surveyed a patch of sky equivalent to the width of three full moons placed side-by-side, the telescope's widest observation area to date.
The survey stitched together more than 10,000 exposures, revealing nearly 800,000 galaxies, many of which shine from the universe's earliest eras.
Harnessing the abundance of data that came from this effort, on Thursday (June 5), the team released the largest contiguous image ever captured by the JWST, along with a free, interactive catalog detailing the properties of each galaxy — a cosmic record that's as vast as it is richly detailed.
"I don't know if the James Webb Space Telescope will ever cover an area of this size again, and so I think it'll be a good reference and a good data set that people will use for many years," Jeyhan Kartaltepe, an astrophysicist at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York and the lead researcher of COSMOS-Web, told Space.com.
"The hope is that, now, anybody at any institution can make use of this data for their own science."
When the JWST launched in 2021, the global COSMOS-Web team comprising nearly 50 researchers from institutions around the world was awarded over 200 hours of observation time, the most allocated to any project in the telescope's inaugural year.
While many JWST studies zoom in on small, deep slices of sky, COSMOS-Web prioritized breadth, capturing a wider cosmic canvas that brought to light 10 times more galaxies than astronomers anticipated from these early epochs.
"It was incredible to reveal galaxies that were previously invisible at other wavelengths, and very gratifying to finally see them appear on our computers," Maximilien Franco, postdoctoral researcher of astrophysics at the University of Hertfordshire in the U.K., said in a statement.
The JWST's expansive view allows astronomers not only to catalog distant galaxies, but also to study how their characteristics — including size, shape and brightness — are shaped by their cosmic environments, such as whether they reside in isolation or in crowded regions.
"That tells us a lot about what influenced them as they evolved," Kartaltepe said.
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Alongside the catalog, the COSMOS-Web team has published a series of scientific papers exploring the data.
One study, posted to the preprint archive arXiv on Wednesday (June 4), examines the most luminous galaxies at the centers of galaxy groups, tracing how their structure and star forming activity have co-evolved over the past 12 billion years.
A key science goal of the project was to map the earliest structures during the Reionization Era (which fell more than 13 billion years ago) when the first galaxies ignited and began clearing the thick hydrogen fog that blanketed the early cosmos.
To achieve this, Kartaltepe and her team plan early galaxies as tracers to measure the size of "reionization bubbles," vast regions where light from stars and galaxies carved clearings in the primordial haze.
"That's not something we finished yet," Kartaltepe said. "But that was the main goal, and something that we're really excited about."
Another paper, which was also posted to arXiv on Wednesday, tests a machine learning technique that can estimate the physical properties of galaxies in the massive dataset.
The team also developed a new method to measure the brightness of distant galaxies more accurately.
Unlike traditional techniques that simply sum the light within a fixed area, this approach models how light is spread across a galaxy, enabling more precise measurements that allow researchers to combine JWST images with blurrier ground-based data without losing important details.
Three more studies detail the team's data processing efforts over the past two years, a meticulous process involving aligning and cleaning more than 10,000 individual images.
As a brand-new observatory, the JWST brought unexpected challenges. The telescope's images included unforeseen artifacts, such as noise patterns and distortions, which the team had to carefully correct.
Despite these hurdles, the JWST outperformed pre-launch models predicting how faint or distant galaxies it could detect, said Kartaltepe.
"The reality turned out to be better — we were able to go deeper than what we expected." The catalog holds "incredible potential," she added. "There's still so much we don't know."
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https://www.sciencealert.com/a-crazy-idea-about-pluto-was-just-confirmed-in-a-scientific-first
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1fPhhTT2Oo
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-025-02573-z.epdf
A 'Crazy Idea' About Pluto Was Just Confirmed in a Scientific First
05 June 2025
When the New Horizons spacecraft swept past Pluto and Charon in 2015, it revealed two amazingly complex worlds and an active atmosphere on Pluto. Those snapshots redefined our understanding of the system.
Now, new observations using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) taken in 2022 and 2023, show that Pluto's atmosphere is completely different from any other one in the Solar System.
For one thing, it contains haze particles that rise and fall as they are heated and cooled.
Pluto's atmosphere is a complicated haze of nitrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide.
Based on the JWST data, the haze particles control the energy balance of the atmosphere as they heat up and cool off. That's very unusual and hasn't been seen in other solar system worlds.
The observations were inspired by an idea astronomer Xi Zhang (University of California - Santa Cruz) proposed in 2017.
"It was a crazy idea," said Zhang.
However, he and the co-authors on the paper felt confident enough to predict that if a haze is cooling Pluto, it should be emitting strong mid-infrared radiation.
If so, then an infrared-sensitive telescope should be able to "see" the phenomenon.
Inspired by that prediction, a team of astronomers led by Tanguy Bertrand of the Observatoire de Paris, used JWST to study the haze control of Pluto's atmospheric heat balance.
"We were really proud, because it confirmed our prediction," Zhang said. "In planetary science, it's not common to have a hypothesis confirmed so quickly, within just a few years. So we feel pretty lucky and very excited."
Pluto, Charon, and their Atmospheres
The atmosphere at Pluto is a chemically rich melange of nitrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide. In contrast, Charon has no appreciable atmosphere, although it may experience seasonal outgassing.
The haze we see at Pluto in the New Horizons flyby images and data is an active experiment in nitrogen and methane photochemistry. In that regard, it's similar to the hazes we see at Titan.
Understanding how that experiment works required longer-term observations than the New Horizons spacecraft could accomplish.
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The JWST observations of Pluto and Charon done in 2022 focused the MIRI instrument on the hazes and atmosphere of Pluto. It also made measurements of 18, 21, and 25 microns at both worlds.
However, to truly understand the atmospheric activity at Pluto, scientists wanted to get data only about Pluto's atmosphere.
In 2023, MIRI turned its attention to Pluto and provided atmospheric and haze data in the mid-infrared (4.9 - 27 microns) range.
That allowed scientists to get a more complete picture of the atmospheric changes and activity at Pluto.
The results revealed variations in surface thermal radiation - that is, temperature changes - at both Pluto and Charon during their rotations.
By comparing these data with thermal models of the two worlds, the researchers were able to place strong constraints on the thermal inertia, emissivity, and temperature of different regions of Pluto and Charon.
These properties are what drive the global ice distributions on Pluto and push material from Pluto to Charon.
The seasonal cycles of volatile ice distribution across the surface drive a migration of ice deposits across the Pluto surface.
It's almost as if various ice deposits are "picked up" and redistributed elsewhere. Some of that material also gets pulled completely away from Pluto and deposited on Charon.
As far as scientists know, this doesn't happen anywhere else in the Solar System.
Controlling Temperatures
The new data show that Pluto's atmosphere is unique among Solar System planetary atmospheres.
Its radiative energy equilibrium - that is, the balance between incoming sunlight and its heat loss to space - is controlled primarily by haze particles instead of gas molecules, as happens in other worlds.
According to Zhang, that makes Pluto even more interesting to study. It also gives some insight into Earth's early atmosphere, which was almost entirely nitrogen and a mixture of hydrocarbons.
"By studying Pluto's haze and chemistry, we might get new insights into the conditions that made early Earth habitable," he said.
The JWST studies are just a first step toward understanding the complexity of interaction in Pluto's atmosphere, as well as its contribution to materials found on Charon.
"Pluto sits in a really unique spot in the range of how planetary atmospheres behave. So this gives us a chance to expand our understanding of how haze behaves in extreme environments," Zhang explained.
"And it's not just Pluto – we know that Neptune's moon Triton and Saturn's moon Titan also have similar nitrogen and hydrocarbon atmospheres full of haze particles. So we need to rethink their roles, too."
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Why does NASA's Perseverance rover keep taking pictures of this maze on Mars?
June 6, 2025
If you've spent any time perusing the carousel of raw images from NASA's Perseverance Mars rover, you might have stumbled across an odd subject: a tiny, intricate maze etched into a small plate, photographed over and over again.
Why is the Perseverance rover so obsessed with this little labyrinth? It turns out the maze is a calibration target — one of 10 for Perseverance's Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals instrument, otherwise known for its fun acronym, SHERLOC.
This Sherlock Holmes–inspired tool is designed to detect organic compounds and other minerals on Mars that could indicate signs of ancient microbial life. To do that accurately, the system must be carefully calibrated, and that's where the maze comes in.
Located on the rover's seven-foot (2.1-meter) robotic arm, SHERLOC uses spectroscopic techniques — specifically Raman and fluorescence spectroscopy — to analyze Martian rocks.
In order to ensure accurate measurements, it must routinely calibrate its tools using a set of reference materials with specific properties.
These are mounted on a plate attached to the front of the rover's body: the SHERLOC Calibration Target.
"The calibration targets serve multiple purposes, which primarily include refining the SHERLOC wavelength calibration, calibrating the SHERLOC laser scanner mirror, and monitoring the focus and state of health of the laser," Kyle Uckert, deputy principal investigator for SHERLOC at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, tells Space.com
The target is arranged in two rows, each populated with small patches of carefully selected materials.
The top row includes three critical calibration materials: aluminum gallium nitride (AlGaN) on sapphire discs; the UV-scattering material Diffusil; and Martian meteorite SaU008, whose mineral makeup is already known and helps align wavelength calibration with real Martian geology.
This is also where you'll find the maze. Why a maze? "SHERLOC is all about solving puzzles, and what better puzzle than a maze!" says Uckert.
The purpose of the maze target is to calibrate the positioning of the laser scanner mirror and characterize the laser's focus, which requires a target with sharply contrasting spectral responses. The maze serves this purpose well."
The maze is made of chrome-plated lines just 200 microns thick (about twice the width of a human hair) printed onto silica glass.
"There are no repeating patterns and the spectrum of the chrome plating is distinct from the underlying silica glass," says Uckert. That makes it possible to measure the laser's focus and accuracy with extreme precision.
If you look closely at the maze, you'll also notice a Sherlock Holmes portrait right at the center. While it's a cheeky nod to the instrument's name, it serves a practical function.
"SHERLOC spectral maps can resolve the 200 micron thick chrome plated lines and the 50 micron thick silhouette of Sherlock Holmes at the center of the maze," Uckert notes.
Like the portrait, the bottom half of the SHERLOC Calibration Target also serves a dual purpose: spectral instrument calibration and spacesuit material testing.
It contains five samples of materials used in modern spacesuits, including some materials you might be familiar with, like Teflon, Gore-Tex, and Kevlar. And don't miss the "fun" target in this row — there's a geocache marker backing a polycarbonate target, and it does indeed have a tie-in to Sherlock Holmes.
These materials are actively being tested under Mars conditions to determine how they hold up over time in situ, which is crucial for planning human exploration of the Red Planet.
"Note that we use all of these materials to fine-tune SHERLOC," adds Uckert. "As a bonus, the spacesuit materials support unique science that will help keep future astronauts safe."
Now, if all these Sherlock Holmes–related Easter eggs on the SHERLOC Calibration Target aren't enough for you, there's one final link.
SHERLOC has a color camera as part of its instrumentation suite that sometimes images the target, and it's called the Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering.
Yes, SHERLOC's sidekick is called WATSON.
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/mars-rovers/why-does-nasas-perseverance-rover-keep-taking-pictures-of-this-maze-on-mars
Air Force 3-Star Nominated as NATO’s Top Officer
June 5, 2025
An Airman with years of experience overseeing air operations in the Middle East is next in line to lead NATO forces as the top U.S. military official in Europe.
Lt. Gen. Alexus G. Grynkewich is nominated for promotion to serve as the four-star head of U.S. European Command, the Pentagon announced June 5.
If confirmed by the Senate, Grynkewich would also assume the title of Supreme Allied Commander Europe, NATO’s top military officer, amid the bloodiest conflict on the continent since World War II.
The North Atlantic Council, made up of representatives from each member nation who make political decisions for NATO, has approved the nomination. Grynkewich is expected to step into the role this summer, the alliance said in a June 5 release.
He would replace Army Gen. Christopher G. Cavoli, who has held the dual role since July 2022. Grynkewich is set to be the fifth Airman in the post since Army Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower was nominated as the first SACEUR in 1950.
U.S. flag officers have served as SACEUR at the alliance’s main military command center in Belgium ever since.
The European Command boss leads about 84,000 U.S. troops at more than 40 bases across the continent.
Grynkewich would take over at NATO’s Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe at a critical moment for the transatlantic alliance.
Russia’s looming threat has spurred NATO nations to hike defense spending and cooperate with new urgency as Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine — which borders four alliance members — continues into its fourth year. Ukraine does not belong to NATO.
Gen. Carsten Breuer, Germany’s defense chief, told the BBC earlier this week he believes Russia could attack NATO by 2029.
His prediction comes as the U.S. plans to begin discussing the potential withdrawal of American troops from Europe with its allies on the continent later this year.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte is urging member nations to invest further in defense, particularly on munitions, as the U.S. turns its focus to the Pacific.
Grynkewich currently serves as the Joint Staff’s operations director. From July 2022 to April 2024, he worked at the heart of U.S. military action in the Middle East as commander of Air Forces Central.
That included overseeing airstrikes against Iranian proxy groups, protecting ground troops, and helping Israel defeat a massive Iranian drone and missile attack the night of April 13, 2024, just a few days before handing over command to Lt. Gen. Derek C. France.
“It has been the honor of a lifetime,” the F-16 and F-22 fighter pilot told Air & Space Forces Magazine last year about his AFCENT time. “I’ve learned and grown as a leader myself in this position, and wouldn’t trade the experience for anything else.”
Grynkewich is the third flag officer and the second Airman nominated this week to lead one of the Pentagon’s 11 combatant commands around the globe.
On June 4, President Donald Trump nominated Lt. Gen. Dagvin R.M. Anderson, to lead U.S. Africa Command. Anderson would become the first Airman in that role if confirmed.
https://www.airandspaceforces.com/nato-grynkewich-supreme-commander/
China launches fourth group of Guowang megaconstellation satellites
June 6, 2025
China launched a fourth group of satellites for its Guowang low Earth orbit megaconstellation Thursday, but released few details about the payload or objectives.
A Long March 6A rocket lifted off at 4:45 p.m. Eastern (2045 UTC) June 5 from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China.
The exhaust from liftoff illuminated nearby hills and vegetation surrounding the spaceport around half an hour before local sunrise.
Distant amateur footage of the launch captured an apparent “jellyfish” effect, with the rocket plume expanding in the thin upper atmosphere and lit by the sun, which was still below the horizon to the onlookers.
The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) announced the success of the launch more than an hour after liftoff.
It noted that the “satellite Internet low-orbit group 04 satellites” had entered into a predetermined orbit, but did not provide information on the number of satellites, nor images, details about the satellites’ capabilities.
U.S. Space Force space domain awareness had not cataloged objects associated with the launch at time of reporting.
The secretive nature of the satellites has led to speculation that they could include dual-use or national security payloads, akin in concept to the classified Starshield program.
CASC also did not name the manufacturer of the spacecraft. Previously, the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), a major CASC institute, provided the satellites.
CAST stated in December it had developed large and small satellite platforms for Guowang, without disclosing functional differences.
The China Satellite Network Group Co., Ltd. (“China SatNet”), established in April 2021, is responsible for Guowang.
The constellation is based on China’s filing with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in September 2020 for a total of 12,992 satellites. According to the filings, two sets of satellites—GW-A59 and GW-A2—are outlined.
These will operate at altitudes below 500 km and between 600–1145 km respectively, using a mix of orbital planes.
According to an August 2024 issue of the China Aerospace journal, the Guowang constellation is expected to adopt new-generation dynamic beam control and optical inter-satellite links, enabling high flexibility and customization.
The satellites will serve both government and civilian users, providing broadband connectivity and tailored data services.
Previous launches of Guowang satellites used the Long March 5B and Long March 8A rockets from Wenchang, with the more powerful and voluminous 5B likely to launch the larger CAST satellite platforms.
The Long March 6A rocket has been used to launch satellites for China’s quasi-commercial Qianfan/Thousand Sails constellation.
Despite a record of successful launches, the rocket has suffered reported issues with its upper stage fragmenting.
The upper stage from the launch which carried the first 18 Qianfan satellites broke up into a cloud suspected to number more than 700 pieces of orbital debris.
The new Guowang mission was China’s 33rd orbital launch attempt of 2025. It follows the May 29 launch of Shijian-26 and the May 28 launch of the Tianwen-2 near Earth asteroid sample return mission.
The China National Space Administration (CNSA) stated June 6 that the spacecraft was three million kilometers from Earth and performing well.
https://spacenews.com/china-launches-fourth-group-of-guowang-megaconstellation-satellites/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ikczXImyDg
https://twitter.com/AJ_FI/status/1930764741036638235
https://spacenews.com/cruz-seeks-10-billion-for-nasa-programs-in-budget-reconciliation-bill/
https://www.commerce.senate.gov/2025/6/chairman-cruz-releases-budget-reconciliation-text
Cruz seeks $10 billion for NASA programs in budget reconciliation bill
June 5, 2025
The chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee unveiled a proposal to add $10 billion to a budget reconciliation bill to offset changes to NASA human spaceflight and exploration programs in the administration’s budget proposal.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) released June 5 a package of “legislative directives” he seeks to include the Senate version of a budget reconciliation bill, a broader package that includes both new spending and recissions of existing spending, along with tax cuts.
The package includes language providing an additional $9.995 billion in the current fiscal year for NASA. Those funds would be available for NASA to spend through fiscal year 2032.
The largest part of the package, $4.1 billion, would go towards production of Space Launch System rockets for the Artemis 4 and 5 missions.
NASA’s fiscal year 2026 budget proposal seeks to end SLS development, along with the Orion spacecraft, with Artemis 3.
Another $2.6 billion would support completion of the Gateway, which the budget proposal seeks to cancel.
The bill also provides a token amount, $20 million, for continued development of Orion for Artemis 4; the bill didn’t explain the much smaller amount for Orion.
The proposal would include $700 million to fund development of a Mars Telecommunications Orbiter, a dedicated spacecraft to serve as a communications relay at Mars.
“This orbiter is dual-use for both a Mars Sample Return mission, to return core samples of Mars to Earth, and future manned Mars missions,” a summary accompanying the bill states, although the administration’s budget proposal would cancel Mars Sample Return.
In space operations, the proposal seeks to provide $250 million in additional annual funding for the International Space Station in fiscal years 2025 through 2029.
That funding would make up for the proposed cuts in ISS operations included in the administration’s budget. In addition, the package also provides $325 million that would go towards development of the U.S. Deorbit Vehicle.
The proposal also includes $1 billion for improvements to NASA’s Kennedy, Johnson, Marshall and Stennis centers and the Michoud Assembly Facility.
While NASA has a backlog of more than $5 billion in repairs and other infrastructure improvements across its field centers, the proposal “would focus only on the manned spaceflight centers and on the infrastructure needed to beat China to Mars and the Moon,” the summary stated.
The NASA language is just one part of the package that includes additional funding for Coast Guard projects and air traffic control improvements, as well as recissions of previously appropriated funds for some efforts, like climate change and environmental projects at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
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One other provision of the package would charge license fees for commercial space launch and reentry licenses issued by the Federal Aviation Administration.
The bill would direct the FAA to charge companies that receive such licenses a fee that would either be a flat amount or based on the mass of the payload.
The summary accompanying the package estimates the fees would generate $100 million through 2034 that would help fund operations of the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation.
“Senate Republicans are fixing the aging air traffic control system, rebuilding the Coast Guard to secure our maritime border against deadly drugs and illegal immigration, ensuring the U.S. – not China – gets to Mars and gets back to the Moon first,” Cruz said in a statement accompanying the bill.
It’s uncertain if the package will make it into the Senate’s final version of a budget reconciliation bill, which, if it passes, would have to be reconciled with a House bill that does not include that funding for NASA.
The reconciliation bill has become controversial after Elon Musk, the chief executive of SpaceX who recently ended his formal role in the Trump administration, criticized the bill.
The once-close relationship between Trump and Musk has devolved into online arguments and threats.
The package, though, has the support of the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA).
In a statement shortly after the release of Cruz’s legislative direction, the organization endorsed it, noting it funds provisions of a proposed NASA authorization bill.
“As industry continues to push into new frontiers and outpace our competitors in space, this effort shows Congress is dedicated to moving forward with mission-critical programs and maintaining our space leadership,” Eric Fanning, president and chief executive of AIA, said in the statement.
The proposal also has the support of the Coalition for Deep Space Exploration, an industry group whose members are primarily involved in NASA exploration programs.
“In particular, the Committee’s recognition of the critical role existing vehicles and capabilities play in exploration beyond Artemis III is not only timely, but also essential,” it said in a June 5 statement, citing competition with China in a return to the moon.
“This is a race back to the Moon that the United States must win. Choosing to cede our leadership in space to China is not an acceptable option.”
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